FALL RIVER — They say that “too many cooks spoil the broth,” but the old saying doesn’t apply to saving victims of opioid overdose.

As people continue to die from opioid overdose at an alarming rate, there’s a need to get lifesaving treatments into as many hands as possible.

Cities and towns have stepped up to put emergency overdose reversal drugs, like naloxone, in the care of first-responders. Families can also carry the drug, and now in a new way.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month approved a new prescription treatment that can be used by family members or caregivers to treat a person who has overdosed on opioids, like heroin and Vicodin.

The new Evzio hand-held auto-injector delivers a single dose of the drug naloxone and can be carried in a pocket or stored in the medicine cabinet, unlike the existing naloxone syringe.

Evzio was approved ahead of its goal date of June 20. The FDA reviewed Evzio under the agency’s priority review program and granted it a fast-track designation to treat a serious condition and fill an unmet medical need.

Lee Dalphonse, vice president of Seven Hills Behavioral Health, with a location in Fall River, said there’s a “real push” to make opioid reversal drugs more readily available.

At Seven Hills, the agency has been providing naloxone to drug users and their families with a physician order.

Naloxone, like Evzio, rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose and saves lives. It is used for the emergency treatment of overdose, characterized by decreased breathing or heart rate or loss of consciousness.

He said it wasn’t out of the question that Evzio may eventually be available in drug stores with a prescription.

Naloxone has been used by emergency medical technicians in Fall River since 1993. Fall River police will be trained to use the reversal drug.

Such treatments are needed, according to Dalphonse.

“The heroin problem in this city has been going on for years,” Dalphonse said.

He said the average age of people becoming addicted to heroin is getting younger, after people first become addicted to prescription pain medication. Once they can no longer secure a prescription or find the drug on the street, they turn to heroin, which is similar, but cheaper and more readily available.

“That’s the concern,” Dalphonse said.

He commended Gov. Deval Patrick for banning the prescribing and dispensing of Zohydro, a powerful extended-release opioid pain medication that is said to be 10 times stronger than Vicodin.

Zohydro is intended only for pain that is severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock treatment when there are no other alternatives. It comes with a great risk of overdose and death, according to the drug maker’s website.

Page 2 of 2 - Dalphonse said Zohydro is a time-release type of drug that works for 12 hours. But, when crushed, chewed or dissolved by drug users, the entire dosage is absorbed in the system and can be fatal.

“What the FDA recommends and what the governor is asking for are safeguards,” Dalphonse said.

He said it was another medication that is likely to be abused.

“For the last seven or eight years, there’s been a growing prescription drug abuse problem (in Fall River),” Dalphonse said.